A scary moment leads to an unexpected landing, Dec. 29
The Jayhawks had just gone on the road and beat Stanford 72-56. Isaiah Moss had 17 points and one of his better games with Kansas as the Jayhawks wrapped up their non-conference schedule. On the plane ride home, the whole Kansas basketball team witnessed a scary moment.
While flying home, one of the engines in the Kansas plane failed just 20 minutes into the flight:
@KUHoops plane blows engine on flight back to Lawrence. We just landed safely back in San Jose. 🙏🏻 pic.twitter.com/aAKPcavCUK
— Ryan White (@ryanwhite_01) December 30, 2019
The plane was forced to make an emergency landing back in California, and thankfully everyone was okay. After returning safely to the ground, many of the Jayhawks began Tweeting about the incident, including Mitch Lightfoot who said “Never prayed like that before! Thank the Lord!”
Here’s part of Kansas basketball’s official statement:
"“The pilot immediately contacted the San Jose Airport where we returned and made a safe landing. We are grateful to the pilots and the entire flight crew of Swift Air. We will stay the night in San Jose and return to Lawrence once the plans have been finalized.”"
The Jayhawks eventually made back to Lawrence, but the situation definitely could have been much worse. They would take on the West Virginia Mountaineers just a few days later to begin Big 12 Conference Play, and their time in the national media spotlight was far from over this season.